Champagne Fever, the second-favourite for the King George VI Chase on Boxing Day, was pawing at the ground like a bull here on Wednesday as Willie Mullins, his trainer, discussed his chance in the feature race of the Christmas season. Had he been able to understand what Mullins was saying, however, the seven-year-old might not have been quite so full of himself.
“Someone did [a newspaper article] on the King George and gave 11 parameters and said you want to pass seven or eight of them to win a King George,” Mullins said. “Our fellow qualified on three.
“We’re up against it in terms of experience but we may as well go and run there. I know when we went across with Florida Pearl [the first time] we went across full of enthusiasm and thinking we were going to be very close and we learned a couple of valuable lessons [when he finished second] which we were able to use the following year. So Champagne Fever, if things don’t go right for him, we’ll know what to do for next year if we want to go back.
“There was a lovely graduation chase at Ascot this week which would suit him better and would have a lot less opposition. We’re biting off a lot going to the King George, but maybe for the rest of his career it might be the right thing to do to find out what he can do against these type of horses. If he’s able to compete or we’re lucky enough to win he could be favourite for the Gold Cup and we’ll go there with a favourite’s chance. If not, we’ll have to readjust and try to approach the Gold Cup from a different angle.
“Another thing is that I don’t think he’s ever won at Christmas. We went to the bumper at Leopardstown [in December 2011] thinking ‘how far will he win?’ and he got beaten, and then we went back for his novice chase [in 2013 and he finished third]. So this is not his time of the year either.”
Modern betting markets are so sensitive that it was possible to imagine Champagne Fever’s ante-post price starting to drift even before Mullins had finished speaking. He remains a 3-1 chance for the King George with the sponsors William Hill, however, as there are several positive points to be made in his favour too, including the distinct possibility that Champagne Fever will improve on the form of his two Cheltenham Festival victories over the minimum trip of two miles when he steps up to three for the first time on 26 December.
“Everything in his pedigree [half-brother to a chase winner over 3m3f] suggests he wants three miles plus,” Mullins said. “Last year, because we won the Supreme Novice [Hurdle in March 2013] we said that we’d go two-mile chasing and it seemed to work but for one quarter-inch [behind Western Warhorse in the Arkle] at Cheltenham. It nearly came off, who’s to say it was a mistake, but sometimes if novices go three miles it mightn’t be the best thing for the rest of their career.”
“You could say we should have been going the longer trip last year, but you’ll only know the answer to that in about two or three years time depending on how his career pans out. If he’s a very successful three-mile chaser, we’ll say that maybe the easy year we gave him as a novice is paying off.”
Unless bad weather interferes with his travel plans, Mullins expects to be at Kempton on Boxing Day rather than at Leopardstown, where this year’s star two-mile novice chaser, Vautour, is due to run in a Grade One novice chase. Faugheen, the 9-4 favourite for the Champion Hurdle in March, will line up for Kempton’s Grade One Christmas Hurdle while Mullins also expects to send at least one runner to the Grade One Feltham Novice Chase. Faugheen took the Grade Two Coral Hurdle at Ascot last month in impressive style and Mullins expects significant improvement when the six-year-old runs next week.
“Last year when he won [the Neptune Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham] he was so fit that there wasn’t a pick left on him,” Mullins said. “This year he’s come back and he could be a hundredweight heavier and he’s winning.
“I was really worried about him going over the other day. Could he win with the size of him? Dan Skelton stood in for me on the day [to saddle Faugheen] there and he remarked to Ruby [Walsh, his jockey] that he’d never saddled a horse to win a race like that who was as fat as he was.
“If he can do that with that sort of condition on him, there must be huge improvement for him during the rest of the season.”
Ante-post punters suffered a significant setback on Wednesday when Sign Of A Victory, who had been challenging for favouritism for the £150,000 Ladbroke Hurdle at Ascot on Saturday, was ruled out of the race due to softening ground.
“Ascot had 12mm of rain last night and into today and the ground has gone against us,” Nicky Henderson, Sign Of A Victory’s trainer, said. “It’s the last race on the card and with more forecast, I’ve decided to take him out. He’s a far better horse on good ground.”
Jamie Spencer, who announced earlier this week that he has reversed his decision to retire at the end of the year, was successful on his first ride since when he steered Master Of Irony to victory in a maiden event at Lingfield on Wednesday. He may now be absent from the track for several weeks however as he prepares to ride as a freelance during the 2015 turf season.
“I’m going to take a holiday until February time and refresh and recharge,” Spencer said. “I try to keep a low profile as much as I can but there’s been a lot of nice texts and calls. There is no target [next year], just to work hard, achieve plenty and be committed and dedicated, on and off the track.”
